He is driving one of the most crucial projects in India. Once the project is completed, it is likely to impact rural connectivity like never before. Ashis Sanyal, senior director, Department of Information Technology, is the mission leader Policy, Planning, Implementation, and Monitoring of Core e-Governance Network Infrastructure Program, popularly known as state wide area network (SWAN), for the entire country. The project is a Govt of India undertaking, and the budget allocated for the project is approximately $850 mn. Sanyal is also driving the implementation of 100,000 common services centers across India. In an exclusive interview with Dataquest, he talks about his mission and its progress Excerpts

Can you give us an update on the progress of the SWAN project? What critical learnings do we have from the implementation of SWAN in various states?
The SWAN scheme was approved by the Indian government in March 2005, with the modality that it would be a central sector scheme. This was to be administered by the Department of IT, Government of India, with decentralized implementation by states/UTs, desirous to participate in the scheme.

In the course of time, the UT of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the state of Goa did not participate in the scheme. A&N Islands had its departmental offices well connected through the bandwidth provided by ISRO, and Goa had already launched its state wide network scheme for ten years with a PPP partner.

Apart from Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Goa, the remaining thirty-three states/UTs participated in the SWAN scheme. Two implementation options are available in the SWAN scheme: the PPP option with the BOOT model and the NIC option in which NIC would implement the network on behalf of the concerned state/UT. While twenty-four states/UTs have gone for the PPP option, nine have adopted for the NIC option.

Out of twenty-four states/UTs under the PPP option and nine under the NIC option, eighteen states/UTs have either completed the implementation or are at an advanced stage of implementation.

The states of Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, and the national capital territory of Delhi have completed implementation of the scheme. The others are expected to complete it by September-October 2008. We expect that all the thirty-three SWANs would be operational by March 2009.

Ashis Sanyal,  senior director, ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India

As far as critical learnings are concerned, we have taken note of important points for taking corrective measures in future implementation of similar schemes. The most important point is to forecast a realistic timeline for various activities.

From the very beginning, we were determined that the ownership of the project should be with the concerned state/UT. We have appreciated the enormous benefits in this approach for the scheme. Consequently, responsibilities for a lot of implementation activities are directly vested on the concerned state/UT-designated implementation agency. And this had necessitated significant processing time in the states/UTs concerned because the dynamics of approval process, availability of technical skill sets, e-readiness of the concerned state/UT vary across the country. As a result, the actual time taken for each activity has been significantly higher than estimated.

Himachal Pradesh and Haryana have led by example in enabling technology-led governance, by becoming the first two states to officially launch the ambitious SWAN project under NeGP. However, with thirty states and union territories progressing at their own pace, are we ready for the March 2009 deadline?

It is true that Himachal Pradesh and Haryana have really gone ahead in implementation of SWAN. On the other hand, Tamil Nadu, having a larger size SWAN network, about 700 points-of-presence (PoP), has also completed the implementation.

The other point is that the states/UTs that were otherwise considered less ICT-savvy have shown great eagerness to implement e-governance infrastructure and applications. This attitude has resulted in faster implementation of e-governance projects there. I feel that the progress in implementation of SWANs has gathered adequate momentum in all states/UTs, and if the current pace is maintained, all the thirty-three SWANs will become operational by March 2009.

We have been talking about SWAN for the last 2-3 years, but it is only now that the momentum is building up. Is enough happening in terms of building up awareness across all states and UTs about extensive usage of SWAN or is there still a long way to go before we touch the post?
In terms of building up awareness across all states/UTs on SWAN and its extensive usage, I feel that all stakeholders are adequately aware of the importance of core e-governance infrastructure for implementing NeGP as a whole. The Department of IT had back-to-back government approval of three important e-governance infrastructure schemes like SWAN, CSC and, very recently, SDC (state data centers).

We periodically conducted awareness workshops for states/UTs on a regional basis in 2006 and 2007. Moreover, in most e-governance conferences/seminars/workshops conducted by the state government or by organizations like Dataquest, the Department of IT actively participated and took the opportunity to carry the message to stakeholders.

I feel enough awareness has already been built up and the `what and `why have been answered adequately. It is now time to find out quick answers for `how, and implement the solution meticulously.

When it comes to fund allocation, are you getting enough support and push from the government, considering that it is a huge project, directly linked to the creation of CSCs across states and UTs?
As far as funding support is concerned, the scheme is approved with a total fund support of Rs 3,334 crore. This amount has got four broad components: capital expenditure, operational expenditure for five years, one-time site preparation cost for all SWAN PoP sites, and the cost of bandwidth for five years.

Since the approval was obtained in March 2005, there are some reductions in the cost of ICT equipment and the bandwidth cost. I feel that the SWAN scheme would be implemented without any fund constraint, and within the provisions of the sanctioned fund. Separate fund is available for the CSC scheme, approved for each state/UT individually, and there is no inter-dependency of funding between the two schemes.

Urvashi Kaul
urvashik@cybermedia.co.in

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